Austin foodmakers win big at H-E-B’s Quest for Texas Best contest

Addie Broyles @broylesa

Thursday

Aug 16, 2018 at 12:01 AMSep 26, 2018 at 12:07 PM

Ten years ago, Cody and Kristen Fields sold their first empanadas outside the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Cody had fallen in love with empanadas while living in Costa Rica, and he knew the handheld pies would appeal to concertgoers walking to and from Zilker Park. The food truck they started grew into Mmmpanadas, which now sells more than 20,000 empanadas every year as an official ACL vendor, plus more through a truck and a trailer that are parked at Zilker Park and other locations in Austin. But soon, the food truck and ACL won’t be the only place to buy Mmmpanadas.

Earlier this month, the company won H-E-B’s grand prize in the Quest for Texas Best competition for a frozen version of its product that will soon be sold at H-E-B stores.

The Fieldses and their two young children were on hand at the Central Texas Food Bank to receive the $25,000 check and the keys to a new Toyota Tundra. The couple said the truck would replace their current Toyota truck, which has more than 300,000 miles on it. Although Mmmpanadas makes nearly 20 kinds of sweet and savory empanadas, H-E-B likely will sell only its best-sellers, including a cheeseburger-inspired empanada and one stuffed with Hatch green chile chicken.

Nine Austin-area entrepreneurs competed in the contest, including Tiffani Diorio, who won the $10,000 third place prize for her frozen biscuits. Named after her daughter, Pennymade biscuits are already sold at the Texas Farmers’ Market at Mueller in six flavors, such as maple bacon, Parmesan herb and chile cheddar, and a 12-pack of the flaky biscuits made with butter and unbleached einkorn flour likely will be sold at H-E-B soon.

Winning first place and a $20,000 prize was Reynold Darthard, the current executive chef of the Houston Rockets who is taking his popular cheesecakes to the retail space. Darthard is a private chef who has cooked for a number of Houston athletes and celebrities, but the seven flavors of Chef Rey cheesecakes are his first consumer product and should be available at H-E-B in the coming year.

Another Houstonian, Lucienne Duforets, won the second place price of $15,000 for her Bellefontaine ice creams, which are made with Jersey milk. The high fat content of the dairy makes a creamy, French-style ice cream, which is already on the shelves of Central Market in 10 flavors, including Key lime tart, salted butter caramel and bananas Foster.

As a judge at the contest, I got to hear from all the finalists, and the entrepreneurs from Austin all had powerful stories to tell. Here is a little more information about the local companies whose products will also likely be on H-E-B shelves but that didn’t win any prize money.Farrah and Yassi Sibai, owners of Afia Foods, explained how their Syrian relatives had to flee the country two years ago, and with them, they brought the family recipe book, which contained recipes for the frozen falafel and kibbeh that they now sell at local international markets, Farmhouse Delivery, Wheatsville and the Texas Farmers’ Market at Mueller.Third-generation pecan farmer Mark Walls, whose family manages more than 5,000 pecan trees in Seguin and who has a small store in North Austin, is expanding on the family business with 38 Pecans, a pecan-meal-based coating for breading or even pie crusts.Austinites Robert and Kristen Strong turned their love of Thai food into a food truck and now a line of sauces that have a good shot of getting on H-E-B shelves, even though they didn’t win the contest. The couple had an infant son die last year after being born with a heart condition, and they have since launched a nonprofit, the Palmer Nicklaus Foundation, to provide meals and other support to families with children with similar conditions.Becky Nichols, whose daughter, Libbie, died of leukemia in 2004, has been stocking the fridges at Dell Children’s Hospital and other medical facilities in Austin with her macaroni and cheese and chicken noodle soup for more than a decade through her Loving Libbie Memorial Foundation. This year, she’s working with the Buda-based Night Hawk to bring a frozen mac and cheese to local grocery shelves.Round Rock pastor John Williamson and his wife, Treva, have been selling a fresh salsa and queso to churchgoers and community supporters to help start their nonprofit, Sing & Shout Foods, which benefits the church’s recovery and family programs.The Buda-based Tiny House Coffee, whose sales benefit the Nicaraguan farmers it works with, is already selling whole bean coffee, but its newest product, Casita, is a cold brew coffee sold in a pouch with a tap valve.Catherine Stiles’ Barbecue Wife is already a well-known brand in Austin with its bloody mary mix, but the co-owner of Stiles Switch barbecue has a smoked honey margarita mix that will soon be hitting local shelves.

WHAT’S FOR DINNER TONIGHT?

How many ways can one make pasta? Here’s one more idea

Siri Daly, the NBC contributor and wife of TV presenter Carson Daly, knows that a family with kids in the house can’t have enough pasta recipes. We’ve published several main-dish pasta meals in the past few weeks as families have been preparing for school, and here’s one more to add to the collection from Daly’s new book, "Siriously Delicious: 100 Nutritious (and Not So Nutritious) Simple Recipes for the Real Home Cook" (Oxmoor House, $26.99).

She adds a frozen butternut squash puree, which adds sweetness to balance the taco seasoning. The cup of taco sauce that she calls for is the smooth, tangy jarred salsa that will add flavor without the chunks of tomatoes. If your kids love salsa, just use their favorite, and don’t hesitate to use only a few tablespoons if you’re worried about it being too spicy for your tastes.

Sneaky One-Pot Mexican Pasta

Everyone always assumes that because I write a food blog (and now a cookbook!), my kids must be fabulous eaters. Wrong! I have picky, picky eaters. Right around 18 months, each of them started rejecting nearly all healthy foods. I’ve felt everything from frustration, anger, shame and embarrassment over it. Yet on my good days, I realize their palates are still expanding and they won’t be like this forever. Case in point: My son now eats salads! Victory!

So I carry on, trying and sneaking: trying new foods, and when that doesn’t work, sneaking them into their meals. Cue this cheesy, one-pot Mexican pasta with squash, which sort of melts into the ground turkey, creating a slightly sweet counterbalance to the spicier Mexican flavors. Obviously, the best part about this dish is you can make it in about 30 minutes in one pot. The first time I made this, my oldest and youngest gobbled it up. The stubborn middle child? Well, we had a 1950s-style showdown. She sat there, crying, begging for a treat, resisting even one bite. Oh, well. Can’t win ’em all.

— Siri Daly

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 pound ground turkey

1/2 (1-ounce) package taco seasoning

1 (12-ounce) package frozen butternut squash puree, thawed

8 ounces uncooked pasta of your choice

2 cups chicken stock

1 (8-ounce) jar taco sauce or salsa

1 1/2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend, plus more for garnish

1/4 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the ground turkey and cook, stirring, until crumbled and no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the taco seasoning and cook, stirring often, until well combined, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the squash, pasta, chicken stock and taco sauce, and bring to a boil over medium-high. Stir everything up, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer until the pasta is al dente, 12 to 15 minutes.

Add the cheese, and stir until the cheese is melted and the sauce is thickened. Sprinkle with a bit more cheese and the scallions, if desired, and serve. Serves 6.

— From "Siriously Delicious: 100 Nutritious (and Not So Nutritious) Simple Recipes for the Real Home Cook" by Siri Daly (Oxmoor House, $26.99)

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